Traffic, Noise Hot Topics for Stadium Town Hall

WOODBRIDGE, Va. — Residents will learn more about a plan to relocate the Potomac Nationals to the economic heart of Woodbridge.

A town hall meeting with the minor league baseball team, Virginia transportation officials, and Woodbridge District Supervisor Frank Principi will be held Thursday, Sept. 27 at Freedom High School on Neabsco Mills Road from 7 to 9 p.m.

The meeting is planned near the site of a proposed 7,000-seat baseball stadium at Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center, the site of a popular Wegmans grocery store and expanding housing, retail, and restaurant complex.

No concrete plans for the stadium have been presented to county officials – only a letter of intent that proposes to move the team from their current home behind the Prince William County Government Center in Woodbridge, and work with the Virginia Department of Transportation which would fund a new, 1,000-space covered parking garage that would house commuters.

County and state officials and team owner Art Silber gathered at Potomac Town Center in July to announce the proposed stadium.

“You’ll be able to hear from all three sides who are involved in the process [of building the stadium], and from the Potomac Nationals, we expect to hear how they plan to fund the new stadium, how it will be used when games are not being played there, and what they plans are for fireworks shows,” said a spokeswoman at  Woodbridge Magisterial District Supervisor Frank Principi’s office.

While many who live nearby the new site of the stadium, a Principi spokeswoman says many of the complaints fielded in her office have been from residents concerned about the amount of new traffic the stadium will generate, excess noise from games and events, and from firework shows – a staple of Saturday night Potomac Nationals home games.

Others have asked what will happen to the current home of the P-Nats – Richard G. Pfitzner Stadium. The owner of the stadium, the Prince William County Parks and Recreation Department, is expected to decide how to best utilize the facility.